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And so it happens again!!!!Firstly, let me elaborate on what I wrote about at the beginning of the season (the beginning of March). One of my regular customers, with whom it has been a constant struggle to get them to replace their filters on a monthly basis, did not replace their filters on their master bedroom system at the end of the heating season. They blindly switched from heating to cooling on their thermostat without replacing their 3-month old filters and subsequently blew up the condenser (outside unit) on their master suite. They called in on a Friday night when the humidity was up at 90 % and the temperature at about 85 degrees. Not much could be done until Monday, so they spent a very uncomfortable weekend without air-conditioning in the master suite. This makes clear the previous message that I left on my web site about there being no such thing as a 90-day filter in Houston. There was so much liquid flooding back to the compressor that it washed all of the oil out of the compressor into the expansion valve (TXV), caused a solid obstruction and blew the terminals out of the compressor, as it was running in a vacuum. Luckily for them, I had upgraded the evaporator coil about 2-years previously and they had an extended warranty on both the parts and the labor so the repair to the coil was free of charge to them. However, the new condenser was not and I believe that this was a very expensive lesson for them to remember to replace their filters on a regular basis. On a more "I told you so note". About 18 months ago, I condemned a regular customer's 5-ton condenser and coil as the coil was leaking freon and the condenser was totally oxidized. The husband, in his infinite wisdom, decided that my price was too high and went with a cheaper company. Six months prior to this occurring, my company had replaced all of the ducts through out the house and had re-balanced the air-flow, correcting a problem that had existed from when the house was built. Well, the wife called me today, complaining that 12 months after this other company had replaced the condenser and coil with inferior product and workmanship, the air-flow problem was worse than ever. She was crying over the phone and stated that she had been out voted by her husband over who should perform the replacement work. When my technician arrived, he found that the equipment was a 10 SEER condenser with a coil, that we in the industry recognize as being extremely restrictive as far as air-flow is concerned. To compound the problem, the company performing the work replaced a slab coil with a box coil but left the original safety drain pan, plenum and transition. The original coil was about 12" wide by 44" long. The new coil was 26" x 26" so the drain pan did not cover the coil as it was supposed to. Also the opening on the new coil was about 18" smaller than the original so the installing company blocked off the transition and plenum to make them fit. This further caused the air to slow down to vital areas of the house. This in turn caused extremely cold air to flow out of the registers and caused them to sweat and rust. There is no quick fix for a situation like this so I informed my tech to let the customer know that they needed to contact the original installing company. Horror of horrors, the original company is no longer in existence as they did not make it through the winter. The long and the short of this story is that the customer is now having to pay for a new evaporator coil, transition, plenum, drain pan, float switch, drain lines, ducts and registers to the areas that are sweating as the ducts are now full of water. If we had performed the original work as I had bid it 18 months ago, they most probably would have saved 50% of what the repair cost now is to remedy a preventable problem. The moral of the story is "What is cheap is expensive". Do not only shop for your air-conditioning and heating equipment on price alone as it will cost you a lot more in the long run as that cheap company most probably will not be around when it is time for warranty work to be performed. A company's reputation is very important as well as its longevity. Every year we go through this same scenario over and over again. Whether it is my company or another well established company that has to rectify another company's shoddy work, can only cost you, Mr. & Mrs. Homeowner a lot more than what good, permitted work would have cost you to begin with. Till next time. Sincerely, |
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